I want to go back to the slide about replacing announcer you can watch all this discussion at www. Cspan. Org. We take you now live to the u. S. Capitol. It is question with House Science Committee don meyer. He is expected to talk about the potential impact of the Trump Administrations this Mission Decision to withdraw from the paris climate agreement. Just Getting Started here on cspan. Certainly with the cooperation of the United States in many countries around the world begin to plan for the future of world local development would apply not only to the least developed countries but just as well equally and universally to the critical state of affairs for human inhts and for development the bestequipped countries, including the United States. Out of that conversation can this extraordinary set of Sustainable Development goals to help lead the way for all countries voluntarily to collaborate in how we will achieve the outcomes of those goals as set we were just years into this. Already, the significant progress. Theres the progress of the millennium Development Goals that were extraordinarily comessful by focusing across the world, the attention of development agencies. Focusing the attention of will find 196 nations this opportunity for voluntary cooperation to carry us forward. Probably all of you are well familiar with that so im warning you. And ill tell you more about this. We are extraordinarily honored this afternoon that we introduce congressman buyer, a great supporter of international engagement, Foreign Affairs, speaking well of the United Nations, and serving as one of our leading ambassadors. We are so grateful he is here. I am particularly delighted as well that our moderator is a colleague of mine, dr. George an extraordinary leader on the process and engagement of the u. S. Congress on Foreign Affairs through his work on International Development modernization. Will be further introduced in time. Let me introduce paul boland, our executive director. Im voluntary. Thank youied out at very much. [applause] good afternoon. Good afternoon everyone. House. Ed to see a full thank you so much. Not only for hosting us this afternoon, but for being a champion. Now more than ever, we need champions in the u. S. Congress. Mission of the whole association of the usa is to educate and mobilize americans for a strong u. S. Yuan partnership. Thats more critical than ever before. As Foreign Affairs other people are facing more than ever , our efforts to educate and mobilize our communities to support the work of the United Nations and its many specialized agencies extreme to date you are going to learn more about global goals, in particular on climate needs tond white this be and you need to be an active voice in your community. If you have not yet joined the United Nations association of youcapital area i hope will consider doing it. Theres much and get out of that network. You can join committees, we focus on many different issues the yearround, modern u. N. A program that we do for High School Students we partner with several organizations. Its wonderful for networking, bringing these goals to the local level. Thats what we have been doing over the last few years here to read consultation and programs like the one for Sustainable Development committee has been putting together. This is sponsored by our development committee. Is been organized and led by a very active committee member, who has been a pleasure to work with the thinking very much for his tireless work and commitment. I want to take a few seconds to think cspan. Collaboration and Foreign Affairs in professionals in Foreign Policy and also our partners intellectual property attorneys. President thank you so very much. Buyers gressman the congressmans office that we do this today. We look forward to your active engagement so we can make a difference. We are the Largest Networks of of americans in support of in session United Nations the United States. Get involved. Thank you so much. Duke. Homas [applause] on thank you, paula, for such a warm introduction. Good afternoon. I would like to personally welcome all of you here to discuss such an important issue. Carsten john buyer and mr. George ingram my name is thomas leo, im a senior at this high school load located in mclean, virginia. Event lead for todays program. Id like to thank my parents. Theyve encouraged and guided me to become the person that i am today. Welll the dads out here as , the same goes for you. Would also like to think an individual for her would do not know i wouldnt have the courage and ability to organize this event. That individual is no one other than mr. Elmendorf a a usa. Nt of you and i want to thank him for his support. Unfortunately, you cant be here today. He went on to secure my position as a committee member. This is rare for people to join patch up at my age to join such a prestigious as to shop. Actively leaving on behalf of of our committee. Or i had the opportunity to learn more about him, and be here today on behalf of them. As a Court Provider core andider, thanks to cspan others for covering todays event. We are with nexus media live as well to help encourage our audiences. He sure to follow at you and a unanca. Ou we will take questions afterwards. Action. On this afternoon, we are gathered here to talk about United Nations at climate action. According to the u. S. , Climate Change presents the single biggest threat to development and is unprecedented. Ins disproportionately april of 2016, under the u. S. s leadership, Member States of the the parisions cited climate agreement, which set the states for ambitious change. President trump decided to withdraw from the paris climate agreement on june 1. Its important for people to reaffirm the leaders that United States has to play. Especially, on issues like this. Congressman buyer isnt on the micro model. Hes fighting against global Climate Change. Worked for his campaign several years ago, when they encouraged him to say and be involved in not only policy, but politics. It was an intern during his reelection campaign. Cumbersome and buyer served as Lieutenant Governor of the president of Virginia State senate, and most importantly under president obama. Let me briefly state that there this will be followed by a conversation between mr. Buyer and mr. Ingram. He served as the u. S. Political leader and is also senior fellow for the Global Economy and civil development. Were pleased to have congressman buyer here today to be the third member of congress to speak about the u. S. s role and importance of United Nations sustainability goals. He will also provide a lawmakers perspective on the need for strong your ship in the u. S. Most importantly, on climate action. , themy honor to welcome champion. [applause] that is now my favorite introduction of my whole life. [laughter] thank you. I guess fluttery wont kill you as long as you dont inhale it. [laughter] the one thing that he got right is cash that may not i may not be the greatest champion but i was running for office in 2014. The simplest promise i made is that i would be the strongest, clearest voice that i could eat to combat Climate Change. Sometimes its not so much important to be the best, as it is to try your hardest. By the way, tom goes to Langley High School in virginia, which is to be the Number One High School in virginia. Then they created Thomas Jefferson magnet school. The simplest most honest answer i spoke please. My primary is 2013. Its 10 of us on the ballot. Ballot. The average primary voter was a 62yearold woman. We couldnt see anybody under the age of 50. Thanks for being a great role model for your generation. Think i think the generation above the two. There are more people in this room and there are and the rest of building. Feels boiled, i am a member of congress that lives substance to the capital. Alexander is closer than others, who lives in the city. Im delighted to be able to come everybodyork with else in texas, california, things like that. Humbled the u. S. To me to talk about the u. N. And Climate Change. I feel very connected first, to the lead one. Family history my grandmother , my role model until she died at 98 and a half, was in geneva in 1945 as part of an american delegation to organize the stash she served as our u. S. Representative to the ilo 4557. They involuntarily kicked her out of this. The kicked her out at age 82. For the women in the room. In 1972, just for the kicked her offered the percy amendment to the u. S. Foreign relations act. As she went around the world to 150 countries, she noticed that usaid money was for training and education, unequally spent almost completely on men and boys. The First Amendment says that it has to be spent equally on men and women treat thats part of the law. Thats one of the great pieces. A free in trieste territory, which is the United Nations protectorate from 194519th d3. My dad was over there as u. S. Army keeping the peace. My United Nations protectorate doesnt exist anymore. Ability serving the u. S. Congress. [laughter] my families from estonia, denmark, germany, belgium, france, england, scotland. Miles child was adopted from dublin, ireland. Lots and lots of international connections. Feeling very to all of the rest of the world. Im a democrat, he left and center democrat. In the first term, maybe my proudest moment was being one of only 28 democrats to vote for trade Promotion Authority for president obama. I was a strong supporter of the and ancific Partnership Investment partnership with europe. Going back to brinton woods, by the time was born. World today,t the its so different from the 1950s. Because of our international efforts, trade, United Nations. Because of u. S. A id and the eight organizations around the inld, there is a great piece the sunday papers two days ago, giant pulled out quickly before reading them slowly and just about i believe the number was 137,000 People Per Day lifted out of poverty. I had dinner with a bunch of Board Members of some Corporation Last night and talked about what we are doing on capitol hill to address poverty. The chairman of this corporation next to me said, they just need , some fox newser perspective on poverty. I said, what about those 137,000 people a day that we have been poverty . Is that people who all decided to work hard . The leadership we provide to make all that different also, one last thought. To switzerland of liechtenstein. There were four other ambassadors would sort all in geneva. World health organization. The Human Rights Commission when i got here, the first thing i did was read the Inspector General report on my mission. , thousand or inkind and kind. O the previous ambassador it was very unkind to the permanent representative to the u. N. Had thrown y sidebyside on the geneva airport. They said, its a problem that the two ambassadors hated each other. They are both Texas Republicans and didnt get along in the embassies or at all. I had the opportunity to meet person who is our u. S. Ambassador to the United Nations the first week. We hugged and kissed and decided we would be the opposite for the next four years, best friends. It made such an enormous difference to have people working closely together. I want to bring that up because there was the North Carolina senator who names i had people my age here will remember. People to cook with the confirmation of our massacre to anyone in new york for most of the second clinton turned. It is number two there and wrote he was a Principal Staff person. Once again, i feel very connected to all of this. When you first get to congress i ask you what committees you want to be on. I said ways and means, appropriation, energy and commerce. I got my seventh and eighth choices, which were science and the National Resources committee. They said twitter the uses of adversity that i love the committees i am on. They are so incredibly relevant to this. And, whats really important to me. Unfortunate that in order to want to have ad hominem attacks, but its widely known as the antiscience committee. That doesntmined leave that kind of change is real or that a man made, or if there is there is nothing we can do about. Our Climate Change hearings are intending to do dominated by Climate Change deniers who prefer to call themselves skeptics. We hear a lot, its not real, the world is cooling. People are predicting an ice age back to the 1970s. Its too late. A difficult Committee Committee to work on because of that. I talk about the National Resources committee, which is different but once again tends to be dominated by people who dont believe that Climate Change is real. On the committee the committee these of public land. My perspective is this. All federal land should be given back to this date to get as much to and oil to the states get gas and oil, rather than be preserved for the long run. And yet, when i discovered in america is the only country in the world where the vast majority of the population does not understand the Climate Change is real and affects us each and every day. We have to fight that in every way that we can. So i lived in Northern Virginia. At the four largest defense contractors all based in my district. I was visiting one of the big four recently. A poster that is shows the city of norfolk, virginia, which looks at as a graph it storm surges in norfolk how often the city is submerged. From 19 30 through today. You see that surgeons are higher every year and more frequent every year. What starts off as small graphs comes very high and very dense. Away toxtended it all 205030 three years from now, norfolk is flooded every day of the year. At our Climate Change. Two or three weeks ago we had with generals and investors, professors, and a admiral who ran the Norfolk Naval this, he told us that this routine now in Virginia Beach to norfolk Virginia Beach that when you leave work in the morning you can check the newspaper and radio to see which roads are open and have not and flooded because of Climate Change and the seed surge and all of that. The city itself 14 and Sea Level Rise in the last 20 years. The 20 years might be 25 but its an awful lot, among the worst here. So obviously it knows no borders. The ideas that we have to somehow come together my wife and i went to denmark in december of 2009. We were over in switzerland anyway, thought it was really important. Frightening because you had all these countries ready to act on Climate Change. In the Big Four Companies india and china. Were saying consistently day after day saying they after day, you got rich by burning , distributing greenhouse gases, now you want to cut back, and youre not doing anything. You have no leadership. For 10 days of the cap the conference went on, as the world from farther away from any kind of construction constructive acts on Climate Change dish baracklast 33 days, obama, a temperate president somewhat, fluent and saved it. Some truly, ar bunch of voluntary goals, and sort of snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. But it was very frightening. The message that was loudest and clear that the u. S. Leads, no one else will. If we dont show our seriousness, why should anybody else take us seriously and move forward with mark i am very proud of what obama did in his eight years as president , despite virtually zero actions by congress. Nothing happening in the house. In the senate well, the house passed a cab and trade bill the first term that went nowhere in the senate. Note them nothing in the second term. Despite that, the u. S. Has greatest improvements in u. S. Gas emissions between 2016 in 2011. On an im an automobile dealer. With a from 19922008 corporate average fuel economy standard of 22 miles per gallon. This meant that every engineering progress made over those 16 years went into bigger, faster, stronger expeditions and things like that. And ob